Working Group Update 2/1/2021

FIF CAT Committee and Tech Specs Working Group. The CAT Tech Specs Working Group reviewed draft comments and questions to submit to FINRA CAT relating to the following: equity orders combined with an unlisted option order at a net price; listed option orders combined with an unlisted option order at a net price; reporting of a customer modification or cancel received and processed directly by a downstream desk; and TRF cancels, corrects and reversals. FIF submitted these comments and questions to FINRA CAT. The Working Group reviewed guidance provided by FINRA CAT relating to the OFF, CSC, CND, CMC, TTS, TTF, FUT and TTO handlingInstructions. The Working Group discussed responses from FINRA CAT relating to the following topics previously raised by FIF members: manual multi-leg route scenario; destinationType and senderType values of “O” for OTC equities; expiration Date for GTX orders; reporting by a routing broker where the receiving party modifies or cancels a route from the routing broker; ALG and other instructions not systematically captured in order details; and orders received the evening prior to a symbol change. During a call on January 29, FINRA CAT provided feedback to FIF on various open issues.

FIF CAT CAIS Working Group. FIF submitted comments to FINRA CAT on the January 19 revisions to the CAT CAIS specifications based on FIF member feedback. The Working Group discussed various issues raised by FIF members, including: name inconsistency scenarios; introducing broker obligations relating to ULTIDs; the use case for the CAIS “BD” customer type; reporting of FDIDs by introducing brokers with relationship IDs; challenges with limited information feedback being provided by the CAIS system; CAIS registration and certification issues; and the scope of CAIS reporting for April 26, 2021, December 13, 2021 and June 11, 2022.

FIF TRACE Working Group. The TRACE Working Group reviewed and edited a draft comment letter to FINRA in response to FINRA’s request for comment on Enhancements to TRACE Reporting for U.S. Treasury Securities. 

FIF Front Office Committee. On January 26, Ari Burstein, President of Capital Markets Strategies, and Greg Mesack, Government Affairs Consultant at Gray Robinson, presented to the Front Office Committee on the recent and upcoming changes in Congress and the SEC and how that could impact broker-dealers, exchanges and other industry participants.

FIF Data and Technology Working Group. On January 27, Jason Murphy from Exegy discussed the impact of Tesla joining the S&P 500. In addition to this spotlight presentation, the group covered the monthly Market Data Capacity Reports, summarized exchange and SIP technical notices and updates, and recent/upcoming regulations that impact market data.